Britain’s infrastructure craze has echoes of Japan’s debt-fuelled building boom December 15, 2014 THE RECENT announcement that the projected cost of Crossrail 2 has risen to £27bn should be cause for deep concern within the Treasury. Added to HS2 and HS3, this means the total budget of just three planned or proposed rail schemes could be close to £100bn – or perhaps even higher, given the overruns so [...]
Our housing crisis will become a catastrophe without a national crusade to fix it September 24, 2014 HOUSING is a basic human right, and we are denying it to our children. If current house price rises continue, babies born today will pay £6.3m in 2048 for a one bedroom London flat. Already, at around £428,000, the average London house price is over 16 times the average national salary. There is a vast [...]
Gain Capital boss Glenn Stevens reveals why he’s so keen on London-based City Index November 3, 2014 You can build it and hopefully they’ll come, or you can buy it and they’ll already be there,” says Glenn Stevens, chief executive of US online trading services firm Gain Capital. It’s an interesting take on the moral behind Kevin Costner’s all-American 1989 movie Field of Dreams. Why bother putting years into a labour of [...]
Planning laws are a threat to this house-building bull run – Bottom Line September 2, 2014 Rising revenues and climbing profits have become par for the course for British house-builders this summer. Redrow was the latest to post a bullish update yesterday, boosted by the coalition’s controversial Help-to-Buy programme which effectively uses taxpayer cash to prop up cash-poor house-hunters. But despite this gift to construction firms’ bottom lines, the government is [...]
London Report: Building boost helps FTSE snap its losing streak March 17, 2014 BRITAIN’S top share index snapped its longest losing streak in two and a half years yesterday as the building sector surged on a government plan to pump more cash into a scheme to boost construction. Persimmon was among top FTSE gainers, rising 3.7 per cent after chancellor George Osborne said on Sunday he would extend [...]
UK government hits back against Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s damning report November 24, 2014 The UK government has hit back against a damning report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, by arguing that the UK's relative poverty level is at its lowest since the mid-1980's. It also said it will continue to focus on the long-term economic plan, through which the government aims to reduce the deficit, cut taxes [...]
Twice as Nisa: Why new rules mean everyone can be a small business investor October 20, 2014 The Chancellor announced in his Budget this year that the government was going to make it possible to hold loans to small private companies in the new Isa (Nisa). A consultation period is ongoing – with a detailed Treasury paper just released – and it is hoped it will soon be possible for investors to [...]
UK energy policy is driven by populism and prejudice: Consumers pay the price December 1, 2014 I CAN imagine ministers’ horror when they read front-page stories earlier this autumn that the UK could suffer blackouts this winter. The speed with which National Grid promised that generating capacity would meet demand, no matter how low temperatures fall, shows how deep are memories of the political damage caused by the three-day week in [...]
CityFibre revenue increases but rising costs up fibre firm’s losses September 29, 2014 WHOLESALE fibre operator CityFibre reported a 45.6 per cent jump in revenues during the first half of the year as it secured a number of new long-term public sector contracts for use of its network. Despite the revenue growth CityFibre’s losses widened during the six months to 30 June, rising to £3.6m from £2.96m during [...]
Builders boom with record rise in job creation August 4, 2014 THE CONSTRUCTION industry is still roaring ahead in the UK, according to a major market survey, with no sign of any slowdown as the second half of the year began. Building firms were more confident than expected in July, according to Markit’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI), which came in at 62.4, only slightly down from [...]